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Power Play
What a film about a poor Gansu farmer says of China’s quest for soft power
Return To Dust fell foul of censors ahead of the party congress despite popularity at home and critical acclaim abroad.
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The Chinese film Return To Dust tells the story of how Ma and Cao grow to love each other as they build their own home and eke out a living.
PHOTO: SCREENGRAB FROM MAPPEALTV/YOUTUBE
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BEIJING - Ma Youtie is a dirt-poor farmer living in China’s Gansu province.
When viewers first meet him, he lives in a shed owned by his brother, owns little more than an old donkey, and is looked down upon for being the poorest in his village. His family pushes him into a union with a disabled woman, Cao Guiying, who is a fellow outcast in the village. To their families it is a marriage of convenience, so that they can be rid of their respective burdens.
